Who is cutting back on what

It's common knowledge that consumers have been trying to economize in the past year. But where have they been focusing their efforts at austerity? Inquiring about specific money-saving steps respondents may or may not have taken in past six months, a new Harris Poll gives some indications.

Among the choices presented, the most popular has been "purchasing more generic brands,"with 64 percent saving they've done this in the past six months. Just under half (47 percent) said they've been "brown-bagging lunch instead of purchasing it,"and nearly as many (43 percent) said they've been "going to the hairdresser/barber/stylist less often."Fewer said they'd "switched to refillable water bottle instead of purchasing bottle of water"(36 percent), "cut down on dry cleaning"(22 percent) or "canceled or cut back cable television service"(21 percent).

Comparing the current poll (fielded earlier this month) to a similar one conducted in June, one sees no reason to believe that consumers have been easing up on their tight-fistedness in recent months. Indeed, brown-bagging lunch was the only category not showing a rise in the number of people saying they'd adopted the money-saving behavior (and it was unchanged from June).